Needlework
by blackberrymint
Summary: The blood drive's on over at the Daily Planet. Unfortunately Clark has a 'fear' of needles and Lois decides that for the greater good she's going to help Clark get over his fear.


**Needlework**

**Summary:** The blood drive's on over at the Daily Planet. Unfortunately Clark has a 'fear' of needles and Lois decides that for the greater good she's going to help Clark get over his fear.

**Context:** This is before Lois and Clark get together on the show and before Lois finds out Clark's secret identity. Also Jimmy's still here.

**A/N:** Unfortunately I got into Smallville pretty late, just this year actually :( So I'm playing catch-up with the fandom. This is my first Smallville fic, and I hope to be writing more :) R&R if you can, a writer always appreciates it!

**Disclaimer:** No infringement on copyright intended. The characters and settings in this story were not created by me.

**Chapter 1 **

The Metropolis Blood Drive was on, and blood bank volunteers have been swarming over the Daily Planet all morning trying to get people to sign up.

"Count me in." Lois announced as she grabbed the clipboard from the blood bank volunteer and filled out the form.

"Somehow I don't see you as the good samaritan kind of person." Clark commented from his desk as he eyed Lois curiously from his seat, enjoying his view as Lois hopped onto his desk, crossing her legs and started filing out the form. She had been making a habit of sitting herself on his desk as her skirt rode up her thighs, but Clark wasn't complaining.

"What are you talking about? I help people all the time." Lois remarked back indignantly then flashed a charming smile at the blood bank kid.

"Like how you helped that poor homeless guy on the street this morning when you knocked him to the ground?" Clark interjected, he just couldn't help himself when an opportunity arose to challenge Lois Lane.

"Hey! He was coming at me with his hands outstretched like he wanted to grab onto my _assets_. I was just defending myself." Lois defended herself again, this time verbally, before turning away from Clark and handing the form back to the volunteer from the blood bank. "What are you looking at?" Lois barked when she found the blood bank kid staring at her as if he actually believed the farmboy's little attempt at making her look like a horrible person. Which Lois would like to point out, she was not, hence the blood giving.

"Lois, he was homeless, he was just asking you for some change." The Boy Scout righteously pointed out.

Lois rolled her eyes at Clark. "Yeah well he should've thought of that before he came stalking towards me with leering hungry eyes."

"He probably was hungry." The Boy Scout pointed out again.

"Then he should've thought of that before he ended up homeless on the street."

"Lois!"

Okay, so maybe she went a little too far on that statement.

"Alright alright Smallville, I'll slip him a 10 when I walk pass him after work today okay?" Lois finally compromised, something she didn't do very often, and something that Clark was beginning to be very good at getting her to do. She blamed it on the baby blues, that and Clark was actually starting to make her feel guilty about knocking the poor homeless guy over. Although she was still adamant that the homeless guy was out for more than just a few loose change and a bite to eat when he came up to her with grabby hands.

She hopped off of Clark's desk and turned to go back to her own desk when she spotted the blood bank kid still standing there, staring at her with his mouth open as if he just saw the bogeywoman alive in the flesh.

"What are you still doing here? Shoo!" She barked and waved at him to get out of her way.

The kid didn't need to be told twice as he stiffly scrambled away to hopefully a much more friendlier side of the office.

"So why are you really donating blood?" Clark asked when Lois settled herself at the desk across from his, as if the mere thought of Lois Lane doing something charitable was beyond his comprehension. Clark momentarily recalled the countless times that Lois had scared away little girl scouts when they tried to sell her cookies.

Lois lifted her head up from the table to eye at Clark as if he was insane for asking her that question.

"Are you kidding me? Blood donors are the unspoken saviours of the human race. I mean, they might not be Mr Blurr, but do you know how many times blood donors have saved my life? I've been in and out of the hospital more than you've worn plaid in your life." Okay, maybe that was an overstatement, considering how much the farmboy loves his plaids, but exaggeration was merely a technique to get a point across and one that Lois liked abusing on a regular basis. "If it wasn't for the blood donations, I'd be six feet under right now with all the psycho nut jobs that have knocked on my door." Then she paused as her words caught up to her. "Correction: not knocked on my door, broken down my door."

Clark would like to point out that psycho nut jobs only knocked on her door, correction: broken down her door because she knocked on theirs first. But he decided on better judgement that it probably wouldn't be wise to mention that little fact to one Lois Lane, even if he was practically made of steel, because even the man of steel has his weaknesses, Kryptonite was one of them, Lois Lane was the other, the much more frightening other.

As Lois started to settle back into her desk, she suddenly lifted her head up again and stared across at her partner, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. Clark looked nervously back at her, he suddenly had an uncomfortable urge to nudge his tie loose and an even more uncomfortable feeling brewing under his skin.

"Boy Scout, have you signed up for the Blood Drive?"

Clark gulped. "What?...Urgh…me?" He replied in what he hoped was a very casual nonchalant and totally not nervous or cringing way.

It only took half a second for Lois to pick up on the edgy and uneasiness in her partner's voice. And it only took Clark a millisecond to recognise the signs of trouble brewing ahead in the form of Lois Lane.

"Oi! Kid!" Lois shouted across the office at the blood bank kid who thought he had escaped the claws of the bogeywoman by stationing himself at the other end of office but was obviously wrong. She waved her arm at him signalling him to come over.

For a minute there he looked like he was about to bolt in the opposite direction, but Jimmy Olsen who knew that it was better to face a live albeit not very friendly Lane then it was to piss off a Lane, pushed the kid back towards Lois' side of the basement office. Jimmy argued that sacrifices must be made for the greater good of the office and was thankful that this time it wasn't him.

The nervous youth made his way uncomfortably back to Lois and Clark.

"Is there a Clark Kent on your list?" Lois asked and then snatched away the clipboard without waiting for an answer. "Clark…Clark…Clark." She repeated absentmindedly to herself as she scanned the list of names while Clark silently cringed and shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not looking forward to the direction his next conversation was going to go in. "No Clark." She finally declared. "But there is a Jimmy Olsen." Lois remarked with a hint of surprise in her voice. "I can't believe Jimmy the wimp signed up for needle jabbing and Boy Scout Clark didn't."

"Hey! I take offence to that!" Jimmy's voice was heard from across the office and Lois momentarily lifted her head up from the clipboard to sneer at him.

Jimmy's confident voice suddenly turned into a whimper as he quickly averted Lois' eyes. So that's why Lois called him Jimmy the wimp. Jimmy groaned in disappointment at himself before stalking away to find a quiet place where he can train his inner mind against Lois Bogeywoman Lane, in hopes of claiming back his pride next time.

"So Clark, any reasons why you haven't signed up for the Blood Drive yet?" Lois asked arching her eyebrow at him in what Clark couldn't quite decide was amusement, curiosity or mockery. Knowing Lois, it was all of them.

"Urghh…I'm going to be out of town when the Blood Drive's on." Clark made up the excuse. He knew that Lois knew that he was lying, but quite frankly any lie was more believable than the truth and that was he was an alien from outer space and needles couldn't penetrate his steel-hard skin to be able to even draw any blood out of him. Not to mention that he didn't think his Kryptonian blood would match any blood types on the blood drive chart.

And of course, Lois caught his lie. Clark doesn't doubt Lois knew all those times in the past, when he made up silly excuses to cover his secret, that he was lying, but Lois being Lois was nosy to everyone and everything except for when it concerned him and his secret. Which was quite a remarkable feat, now that Clark thought about it. But he had always chalked it up to the fact that Lois despised him so much that she'd rather know as less about him as possible. Now that they were actually getting along, under the pretence of not getting along, Lois had been more pressing when it came to Clark's lame excuses.

Lois arched an eyebrow at the 'thy-shall-never-lie' Boy Scout. "The Blood Drive's on for all of May, are you going to be out of town for the whole month?" She looked to Clark smugly as she caught him out on his lie.

"Maybe?" Clark weakly replied and eyed Lois in what he hoped was a firm affirmative stare and completely not with a heart-pounding, run-for-your-life before the bogeywoman gets you kind of fear in his eyes.

Lois slowly nodded her head at him then snatched a pen from her desk. "I'm sure you can come back from your trip one day early." She said as she smiled charmingly at him. "I'll put you down for the 31st."

Clark's face suddenly paled as he watched her put pen to paper. "What are you doing Lois?" He asked in alarm.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm signing you up to get your blood donated."

"You can't." Clark blurted out immediately earning him a weird glance from Lois.

"I just did." Lois replied smiling and handed the clipboard back to the blood bank kid who happily took it back and then ran for his dear life.

"I…wait…I…" Clark mumbled as he turned back and forth from Lois to the disappearing back of the blood bank kid. "Why did you do that for?" Clark finally said when he was able to form a coherent sentence again.

Lois looked at him suspiciously from across the table. "What is up with you today Smallville?" She remarked as she continued to study Clark's features as if determining whether she was talking to a clone. "Usually you'd jump on the bandwagon at an opportunity to do something good for the world. Heck, you even do my share of the good samaritan work." Lois commented as she recalled Clark Kent buying every last cookie from that little girl scout in order to make up for Lois making the kid cry.

Clark opened his mouth but couldn't come up with anything to say.

"I don't get you Smallville." Lois continued on. "One minute you're out there saving the world, the other minute it's like you're trying to hide from the world."

"Lois, it's not that I don't want to donate my blood, it'll probably save a few lives," And cure a few diseases, "but there are reasons why I can't donate." Clark finally said, and how he wished that he could just tell Lois the reason. He had truly considered telling Lois the truth quite a few times but he would always end up with the same conclusion; that it was too dangerous for her to know the truth, that he couldn't possibly tell her his secret so selfishly, just because he didn't want to lie to her anymore, so that she could see him for all that he was. He couldn't put her life in danger for a selfish wish like that.

Lois looked at Clark closely, studying him from across the desk before it finally clicked in her brain why Clark Kent might not want his blood taken. It was like a light bulb had been switched on in Lois' brain as her face suddenly lit up at the realisation.

"Don't tell me that the big strong farmboy is afraid of needles?" Lois finally exclaimed revealing what she had found out.

Clark's mouth dropped. 'What?...I…of course not!" Clark defended himself.

"Oh. So that was the problem." Lois concluded for herself. "Why didn't you say so earlier Smallville?" Then she gloated to herself. "So farmboy is afraid of needles, who knew." She marvelled at the new information that Clark knew she was sure to bring up at their next banter session, no matter how totally untrue it was. "Ha!" She let out a little snort. "Awww don't worry Clarkie, it's really not so bad."

"I don't have a fear of needles Lois." Clark said almost clenching his teeth. He couldn't believe the old nickname Clarkie was back.

"Whatever you say Clarkie." Lois grinned at him before getting up from her seat to go meet a source.

"I don't! I really don't!" Clark shouted after her.

"Keeping shouting like that and the whole office will know soon." Lois's voice drifted back into the office just as she disappeared from sight.

"Know what CK?" Jimmy asked as he miraculously appeared in the office as soon as Lois was out of sight.

Clark groaned under his breath. "Absolutely nothing."


End file.
